25 years ago - Decide Indian statue to be placed at Opechee Park

Saturday

Aug 29, 2009 at 3:15 AM

By Warren D. Huse

LACONIA — The city's Indian War — over "which group of city officials have control of Stewart Park and the placement of an Indian carving in it" — was settled, Aug. 23, 1984, when Mayor Armand Bolduc "announced he would ask the Parks and Recreation Commission to allow the statue to be erected at Opechee Park."

Earlier in the day, according to The Citizen, city officials and park commission members had been served with a temporary injunction — issued at the request of the Laconia Housing and Redevelopment Authority — and stopped work on construction of a concrete base for the statue at Stewart Park.

Bolduc noted that litigation over the site could delay preparation of the base by at least eight months and sculptor Peter Toth needed "to erect the statue in the very near future so that it may be finished." The mayor also observed that it was "not in the best interests of the city or its citizens to pursue legal action against one of its own commissions."

The battle had started the previous month "when the council approved placement of the Indian statue in (Stewart) park," but "LHRA members voted 3-2 against the idea."

Meanwhile, two attempts at raising the statue from a flatbed trailer onto its foundation at Opechee Park ended in failure, to the chagrin of several hundred gathered for the event, Aug. 28.

H.B. Hill of Franklin had made "a valiant stab at lifting the red oak Indian carving after having determined it was about a five ton load. The crane, capable of lifting 12 tons, lifted the artifact off the trailer bed but was not able to place it in an upright position. It has now been determined that the Indian weighs in excess of 15 tons."

Another attempt, by Yankee Crane Co. of Peterborough, was scheduled for Aug. 29.

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